Bryan Kohberger’s Trial and the 400 Witnesses Strategy
Bryan Kohberger, a 29-year-old Ph.D. student in criminology from Pennsylvania, is facing allegations of a horrific crime. He is accused of entering an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, around 4 a.m. on November 13, 2022, and brutally killing four University of Idaho students with a large knife. The victims were identified as Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, childhood best friends, along with their housemate Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, both 20. A surviving housemate witnessed a masked man leaving the scene after overhearing a struggle, but the police were not alerted until around noon the next day. Kohberger was arrested more than six weeks later at his parents’ house in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, following an extensive investigation involving the FBI and police across multiple states.
During the proceedings related to his trial, a significant point of discussion has been Kohberger’s defense team’s intent to call an extensive number of witnesses. The defense has discussed calling upwards of 400 witnesses during what is referred to as the “innocence phase” of the trial. The prosecution expressed great concern regarding this strategy, particularly as they perceived it might be an attempt to delay full alibi disclosure. This large number of potential witnesses and the implications on the trial’s logistics have…
